Flow control is of growing interest in present day fluid mechanics, aerodynamics research, and industry. Improved performance of aerodynamic surfaces is at least in part achieved by either preventing or mitigating separation of the flow field on that surface. Improved flow characteristics over an aerodynamic surface can have profound effects, such as greatly enhancing its aerodynamic performance, increasing the operational lifespan of the surface, increasing heat transfer efficiency, improving overall user experience, and decreasing maintenance costs.
Active and passive flow modification devices have been shown to enhance performance of various systems, such as: flow over wings, electronic cooling, reduction of structural vibrations, noise mitigation, etc. However, previous devices have shown limited ability to finely control these modifications and thus control over flow fields themselves, and further, particularly for passive modification devices, cannot be removed when ineffective or not needed, and thus result in a penalty to the system.